Headline of the Week

Starting this August Simms will be selling directly to the consumer. CEO K.C. Walsh answers all the questions in this interview shown here. 

http://www.simmsfishing.com

Here is my first and only problem with this, this will inevitably crush some small specialty retail stores that heavily rely on the sale of Simms products. Basically Simms is going away from what made them what they are now. Unfortunately, this will mark the end of the good old days and soon we will have Simms stores popping up and all the little fly shops gradually go out of business. Because lets face it, it will be tough for a shop to survive by selling only tying materials and flies. Who is going to drive an hour out of their way to visit a simms dealer when they can buy the good stuff online? Certainly not your average lazy american angler. The same people that don't walk a half mile from where they park their car to fish that's who. Sadly, that demographic makes up the majority of fly fishermen and women. In the interview with K.C. he talks about the large number of people who go into the fly shops because of the atmosphere. Well speaking as a fly shop employee, the people we see regularly are the people that don't buy anything. Those people are just looking for a water cooler to chat around. I'll be curious to see what happens in the coming months and years, but it's only a matter of time before this decision by K.C. will hurt the local specialty store.